The Lonely Saber
by Peppermintswirl4812
Summary: Diego meets a little cub that he might have a stronger connection to him than he thinks
1. Chapter 1

Diego was out hunting in the forest of the island. He didn't want to be around the herd while he ate his kill. Being in a herd where most of the herd were lower down in the food chain than he was, he didn't want to cause any discomfort. While he was on a stalk he heard a low growl. He looked up to see a whole angry pack of brown sabers blocking his pack.

"This is our territory kitty. So take this as your one and only warning," one of them said.

"Oh. Right sorry," Diego said and slowly backed away, trying to smile.

He managed to get out of the pack's sight and ran off.

"Geez. Typical saber packs," Diego said in anger, glaring on the ground as he was walking away.


	2. Chapter 2

It started getting dark and Diego found a cave to sleep in that night. He was sleeping peacefully until he heard sabers roar and someone running and coming closer. He got up and peaked outside the cave. Then he saw another saber. He was a small cub, he was about ⅓ of Diego's high, so he would only reach about halfway up his legs, and his body was about a third as long as his. His two long saber teeth were also shorter, about a third as big, along with his height and length, keeping everything in a usual body scale. He was probably only 3 years at most older than his and Shira's daughter, Hunter, who was only a quarter the size of Diego and Shira. He was running away from something, very afraid. The pack from earlier was chasing him. Diego followed close behind them, he was curious about what was going to happen. The cub quickly turned right when there was another path and hid in a bush right at the bent that started that path. The pack ran right past him on the path that he was originally on. Diego walked over to the place the cub turned, he was about to keep running when he heard rustling and turned his head towards it's direction. He walked over to the bush where he heard it and lifted up a few leaves with his paw. He saw the cub trembling in the bushes, looking out of breath and tired.

"Please. Please don't hurt me," the cub said.

He voice sounded modulated and cracked slightly at some points in his sentence. But it also sounded soft and gentle.

He then passed out and fell from exhaustion.

"What the…?," Diego said staring at the cub confused.

He heard growling and looked behind him. The pack was still looking for the cub. One member, the one that had growled was right behind Diego. He saw Diego, stared for a few seconds and kept moving. He didn't see the cub, Diego was in the his view. Every instinct Diego had was telling him to just turn around and walk away and leave the cub there. But if the other members of the pack came to the place where that other saber would have seen him if it wasn't for him blocking his view, they would see him. Diego looked back at the cub. He was too small, too weak, there was no way he could fend for himself on his own against a full grown saber, let alone a full pack.

"Come on Diego. No one can be heartless enough to leave a young, out cold cub to his death," he said to himself.

He picked up the cub with his teeth by the scruff which made him go limp. Front paws contracting in front and the lower halves folded down while the upper halves stuck out. The hind legs contracted, pulling in closer to the rest of his body. He walked away carrying the cub by his mouth. He moved quietly hid behind a large that could hid him when he saw the rest of the pack coming. He watched them go carefully. He stayed there until he was sure they were out of sight. He got out from behind the rock and walked back to the cave.


	3. Chapter 3

Diego had gotten far away from the pack, he put the cub down in the moon light so he could see him properly. It was a jaguar cub, about a year or 2 older than his daughter. He had a golden coat. With 3 spots on his head. 2 spots on the back of his neck. On spot on the right side of his neck, and another on the other side. He had 5 spots on his back, 4 on his tail, and 5 on each leg. Making a total of 21 spots. There were no spots in the cubs face, but the one spot on his head did go through the middle of his forehead. Everything in Diego was screaming at him to leave the cub strained here and get back to the cave, but something kept holding him back. Hunter. He was a bit older but he was still very young.

"_Did you really think if she knew her father had left an innocent cub in a deserted valley, with a large pack looking for him, listening to his instinct when it's telling him to leave him of all things, that she'd approve? What would Shira think? What would the others think?" _he thought.

But there was something other than all those thoughts holding him back. Something in the back of his mind. He could tell what it was, but for some reason, the cub looked familiar to him. The feeling gave him a sharp pain in the stomach, the feeling of guilt mixed with something else. He shook his head to get rid of the feeling. He had never seen the cub before, he was sure of it. Suddenly his ears perked up. There was a low growl, the pack was coming pack. He sighed.

"Come on Diego. If you're gonna decide to keep a pack from getting him, you might as well follow through on it," he told himself.

He picked the cub up again and went to the cave.

Diego had reached the cave, he knew there wasn't much of the night left. When the cub had first passed out, there might have been about 2 hours of the night left, but Diego had decided to rest as much as he could. He set the cub next to him and then lied down. He was going to have to think of a way to explain this to the herd when he got back. He fell asleep.

As Diego slept, he began to dream. It was an extremely cloudy dream, there wasn't anything to see. He could just barley hear muffled sounds. Screams, silence, and then a child whimpering, it kept on going on a loop over and over again. Diego shot awake gasping, he was feeling the same feeling in his stomach from before, the cub was still unconscious, he looked out. The sun was beginning to rise, he would start leaving soon. The feeling had matured to a painful burn. He tried to shake it off but this time he couldn't, the feeling only lasted a few seconds, so did the memory of the dream. What was happening to him?


	4. Chapter 4

When it was morning Diego put the still unconscious cub on her back. He started walking. By the time Diego got out of the forest the cub was starting to stir.

"Diego! There you are. I was starting to get worried," Shira said as she and Hunter walked up to him. Ellie noticed the spotted, breathing cub on his back.

"Who's that cub with you. He seems really cute," Ellie said.

"I found and saved him in the forest. I didn't catch his name,"

He moaned and stirred again on Diego's back, lying down on his stomach, rather fitfully.

"I think he's waking up," Diego said.

He slowly lowered himself and gently let the cub slide of his back onto the ground near him. He then told the story of what happened. The cub woke up, he seemed sleepy at first but soon became alert and looked very uncomfortable.

"What? What happened? Where am I?," he said.

"I brought you here. You passed out last night," Diego said.

The cub slowly rose to his paws.

"Oh. Well thank you," he said.

"What's your name sweety?," Ellie said.

The cub looked even more nervous, his ears even went back and he took a few anxious steps away from the mammoths. Diego was the first to notice but didn't say anything. It wasn't that unusual. The cub seemed pretty young at mammoths were known to be able to kill sabers. It made sense for a cub for small and easy to be squashed to be a little on edge. Yet the cub still kept eye contact.

"My name? My name is Dakota," he said.

Hunter pounced on him, making him grunt and pinned him to the ground. He seemed shocked at first but quickly recovered.

"Come on! Let's play play play play play!," she said getting off him and running off.

The other cub got up, he seemed to want to play with her but then looked at Diego and Shira.

"Um... Can I?," he said nervously.

Shira smiled.

"Sure. Go on. We were looking for a playmate around her age anyway," Shira said.

The cub walked away calmly, keeping his eyes still looking as close to behind them as they would go without moving his head and then ran after Hunter.

"He seems sweet," Shira said.

"I don't trust him," Manny said.

"My neither," Did agreed.

"Manny!," Ellie snapped.

"Uncle Sid!," Peaches also snapped.

"I'm sorry Ellie. But how can we trust him. For all we know he could just be here looking for a trusting meal for his pack," Manny said.

"Ya. He is a saber after all," Sid said.

Diego glared at him, he got in his face.

So is Shira, and Hunter, and I," he said darkly.

"Okay, no need to eat me. You guys are different," Sid said.

"Be has a point. Shira and Diego were saved and changed by us and Hunter was born into our herd and raised to know not to hurt us. But Dakota has no such excuse. He was most likely born and raised in a pack," Manny explained.

Diego sighed.

"Okay guys look. I don't trust or like him any more than you do, but I'm not going to say that now I mean he's right over there," Diego said, pointing to where the two were playing.

"BUT HE'S A MEAT EATING, EVIL SABER," Sid screamed at the tip of his lungs.

The two cubs looked up confused, Diego froze as he looked at them. The two looked at each other. Dakota shrugged and the two kept playing.

"Say that a little louder Sid. I don't think the entire island heard you," Diego said angrily.

Sid went quiet.

"Look guys at least try to tolerate him until we can find out where he lives and get him back home safely," Diego pleaded.

The two boys looked at each other and then nodded. Ellie and Peaches ended up storming off in disgust of the boys' behavior.

"Ellie! Peaches!," Manny called out before sighing.

"Don't worry Manny. We're right to be worried," Sid comforted.

"I know Sid, I know," Manny said sadly.


	5. Chapter 5

The two cubs finally decided to take a break from playing and catched their breath. Diego decided to take this oppertunity to talk to the newest cub.

"Sweetie, do you mind going to your mother for a while? I would like to talk to our guest in private," Diego said to his daughter.

"Okay daddy. I'll see you later Dakoda," she said as she walked away from her new friend.

Diego turned his attention to the other cub. He noticed the cub had a bit of worry in his eyes, it was well hidden but Diego had been around long enough to reconize worry when he sees it.

"Relax kid," he said calmly as he layed down to be closer to the sitting cub's height.

"Uh, Dakoda was it?,"

"Um, yes?,"

"I just wanted to ask you a few things,"

"Oh. Okay,"

"So why were you in another pack's territory last night?,"

"I was trying to find shelter from the storm,"

"Where's your pack?,"

Dakoda got quiet fot a momment.

"Something happened. I got seperated from them. Very seperated,"

"Where do you live?,"

"Right past the mountains on the other side of the island. Most animals from this side don't cross them and same goes from the other side. The only reason I came over is because I got lost in the rain, couldn't even tell I was in the other side until I tripped and could tell the difference between the enviroments,"

"Well you certainly… sounded smart while talking about that," Diego said taken back by the cub's change in the way he talked.

He went from nervous and shaky to confident and well spoken in just one question.

"Ya. I tend to do that. I sound a bit clueless when I'm nervous or don't understand something," Diego chuckled.

Manny and Sid were glarring at the two.

"I can't believe it. I don't know what's worse. The fact that, that cub is minipulating Diego or the fact that Diego's actually smiling at him," Manny said.

'Ya. I do not like that predator. I do not like him one bit. And that's really saying something coming from me," Sid said.


	6. Chapter 6

"So your from over the mountains right?," Diego asked the cub.

"Yes,"

"Great. Well, you should go on home,"

Diego started to walk away from the cub.

"Oh. Um-,"

"A storm! A really bad storm is coming! It's going to wipe everyone on this half of the island," someone screamed as they ran by.

"What?!," Manny exclaimed.

"Wait! Uh,"

Diego turned back around.

Dakota sighed.

"Actually, I lost my mom. And with that storm coming-,"

"Kid. We have our own problems,"

"Come on please. Can't we all just go. These's lots of water and a ton of food and it's safe from the storm you were talking about and-,"

"Wait wait wait. What did you just say?,"

"There's lots of water and a ton on of food?,"

"No. After that. The other side of the mountains are safe from the storm?,"

"Ya. Most of the water will be out of the clouds by the time the storm reaches there it'll be just the strong as a regular storm," Dakota explained.

Diego looked skeptical at the cub. This was too convenient.

"Your kidding,"

"No no. Everyone close to the mountains are heading over to the river gathering. Come one, I'll take you and your friends there. It'll be great,"

Diego still looked skeptical.

"I promise I'll keep every saber there from attacking you,"

"We don't need you to protect us from sabers,"

"So?,"

Diego sighed.

"You're sure you know the way?,"

"Ya. No problem,"

"If you slow us down-,"

"I won't. I promise,"

"Alright. Wait here," Diego told him.

Diego walked over to the others.

"I think we're gonna need to have the kid bring us to the other side of the island," Diego said.

"What?! We can't trust him! We just met him!," Manny said angrily.

" I know! But we'll be safe from the storm there and none of us know the mountain area," Diego reasoned.

"Come one Manny we can't stay here," Ellie said.

"Alright. But he better not try anything," Manny said.

Diego walked back over to the cub, who was sitting, waiting patiently for Diego to come back.

"Alright kid. We leave immediately,"

Dakota nodded and led the way. The herd started to follow.


End file.
